Vancouver Facebook Marketplace scam victim speaks out
Posted March 23, 2023 10:05 am.
Last Updated March 23, 2023 10:07 am.
A B.C. woman who says she was scammed by someone on Facebook Marketplace is sharing her story in the hopes it will help others avoid a similar situation.
Liliana Faisca owns Relove Furniture, a curated vintage store in Chinatown, Vancouver.
She says she fell victim to a scam on the platform after she put down a $100 deposit for pieces of vintage furniture.
“One of them was a love seat in the shape of ruby red lips, and the other piece was a life-size statue, a porcelain statue of either a tiger or a leopard,” Faisca explained.
She tells CityNews she is used to online sales, however, she was surprised when the seller didn’t respond to her messages the day before the pickup was scheduled.
A Vancouver woman says she was scammed by someone on Facebook Marketplace. She’s now sharing her story with the hopes of helping others avoid a similar situation. (Submitted by Liliana Faisca)
“And then I looked into their profile and their profile had been deactivated. And then I reached out to the phone number that they had provided me for pickup, and it was out of service. So, then I realized, you know, I had been scammed,” she recalled.
Faisca posted a video on Instagram sharing her story and tips to help others spot a potential fraudster. She says several people commented saying they were scammed by the same person.
Fraud is taking more of Canadians’ money according to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. Last year, the group says Canadians lost $530 million to cybercrime, noting anyone can be susceptible to it.
“They target based on their emotions, they target people based on what’s the hot topic of the day. And they just have so many of these scams out there that they make a lot of their money just by volume as opposed to the quantity of any particular investor,” said Doug Muir, director of enforcement, British Columbia Securities Commission.
He says British Columbians are being cheated most commonly by crypto investment scams. Last year, Muir says British Columbians lost almost $24 million — triple what was reported in 2021.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the time their money is gone. It’s just gone and we’ll never be able to track it down. But if we are able to act quickly, we may be able to use some of our tools to freeze funds if we can find them and know where they are, and there’s a possibility we can get that money back to victims of investment fraud,” Muir told CityNews.
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He advises scam victims to report their cases to police or to the B.C. Securities Commission.
Meanwhile, though Faisca had to deal with a sticky situation, she says her story has a happy ending. She opened a dispute with her bank and was able to get her money back after an investigation was launched. Now, she looks at Marketplace listings with a more careful eye.
“If they have any seller reviews, [or] other items that they have listed for sale, is it all kind of cohesive? Does it make sense? You can ask the seller for a video of the item, so then they can prove that they do in fact physically have it with them,” she recommended people do.
